


Once in a Lifetime

by imaginary_golux



Category: Tarzan - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:55:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29442981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux
Summary: Tarzan likes to listen to Jane tell stories of the stars.
Relationships: Jane Porter/Tarzan
Comments: 3
Kudos: 24
Collections: February Ficlet Challenge 2021: Apocalypse No





	Once in a Lifetime

Tarzan enjoys learning anything Jane wants to teach him, but his absolute favorite lessons may well be the ones about the stars. Not because he’s particularly interested in stars - there are so many things closer to the ground which are far more fascinating - but because learning about the stars means he gets to sit out on a quiet hillside in the dark, with Jane pressed against him, happy as she always is when she gets to share some of the astonishing amount of knowledge she gathers like a bird gathers twigs for its nest.

He’s never paid much attention to the stars before - the thick leaf-cover of the trees means his tribe of great apes don’t see them very often anyhow - but Jane loves them, knows the shapes they make and the stories of those shapes, the way they can be used to navigate across the world and the way they move as the year rolls by, and Tarzan loves how when she’s really caught up in telling him things, she forgets to be “proper,” whatever proper means, and is instead enthusiastic and gleeful and loud and _happy_.

Also the stories are fun.

Tonight she’s telling him the story of Orion, the mightiest hunter in the world, who fell in love with a goddess - Tarzan maybe has some fellow-feeling from Orion, he thinks, coiling a lock of Jane’s hair around one finger. Jane is sitting on his lap, since that’s the easiest way for him to follow her pointing finger as she indicates each star in turn, and she’s warm and soft and wonderful to hold.

“And there are _kinds_ of stars!” she enthuses, going off on a tangent that’s doubtless going to be as interesting as the main thread of her tale. Everything Jane says is fascinating, after all. “There are the big red giants and the little white dwarfs and _supergiants_ and - oh! And even supernovas, though I don’t think I’ll ever see one of those.”

“What are those like?” Tarzan asks, propping his chin on her shoulder.

“They’re glorious and incredibly rare - once in a lifetime, in a _dozen_ lifetimes! We think they’re when a star dies, or maybe when it’s born. I’d like to see one someday.”

Tarzan thinks, _I don’t need to_. Something glorious and beautiful and rare, the death of an old life and the birth of a new one - well, he’s got that already, right here in his arms.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the FFC prompt "Supernova," and beta'd by my absolutely wonderful Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw.


End file.
